Wall Street, Asian markets rally on hopes for an end to US-Israeli war on Iran.
Published On 12 Jun 2026
Stock markets have surged following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will not go ahead with planned strikes against Iran and a peace deal with Tehran is imminent.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P500 index finished nearly 1.8 percent higher on Thursday, its biggest single-day gain since April, after Trump suggested that a deal to end the Iran war could be signed as soon as this weekend.
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The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.5 percent, while the older, blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 1.9 percent.
The rally continued in the Asia-Pacific on Friday, with markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia racking up gains.
South Korea’s KOSPI, the best-performing major index this year, surged more than 8 percent in morning trading, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose as much as 4 percent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX gained about 2.4 percent, and Australia’s ASX 200 rose about 1.8 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up more than 1 percent.
Brent crude, the primary international benchmark for oil prices, fell about 1 percent to below $89.50 a barrel on hopes for a return to normality in the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries about one-fifth of global energy supplies.
Iran has not publicly confirmed Trump’s claims, but a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters a memorandum of understanding with the US is “under consideration”.
“For the rally to be sustained, investors will want to not only see the actual deal being signed, but a complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,” Khoon Goh, head of Asia research for ANZ, told Al Jazeera.
“Only then will we see the gains extend.”
Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG in Sydney, Australia, said the rally reflected a “meaningful easing of geopolitical risk,” as well as anticipation over Friday’s market debut of SpaceX, set to be the largest of its kind in history.
“The broader read on today’s Asian follow-through is that dip-buying interest remains genuine,” Yip told Al Jazeera.
“That matters for how you characterise what’s happened over the past week,” Yip said.
“This looks less like a structural break in the bull market and more like a healthy reset after a rapid, near-straight-line advance, the kind of consolidation that can potentially extend a rally’s longevity.”